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No worries, I was able to get them back on with a little bit of trouble. Don't really need to take them off now anyway.

The test server is the DL360 below the firewall. I need to do some tests to figure out if the backplane is bad or if I have two bad drives. Either one isn't going to be fun.

Depending on which gen the DL is, you can probably find new/used parts on fleabay by the truckload. One advantage of using COTS and mass produced rigs is that parts arent hard to find when you need them.

Adragontattoo wanted some better pictures of my Sencore case (the huge blue one). The case design in this is pretty ingenious. The power supplies plug into a backplane with what looks like some power regulation/smoothing. Remember that this server was created with the intention of video/audio processing/recording. I've still not decided what I'd like to do with this case. The system, as far as I know, is working. So, I see no need to place anything different in it until something fails and I can't repair it.

If it fails, it would be interesting to put a decently new computer in it. There is a ton of space up front, so high airflow or watercooling (with mods) is a possibility. They just use 3 tiny 60mm fans (YS Tech FD1260257B-2A; 2.15w each) with nothing in the back. The processors are two P3 (unknown speed) in a SMP motherboard (NEX 6420A; SCSI; PCI/PCIx) with 512mb of RAM. I'm not sure how large the hard drive is, but it is IDE. It has a CD reader along with a floppy drive. It seems there was two cards in the back (video/sound?), but they have been removed; there are indentations in the card holders. In addition to that, it seems that there may have been something in the 5.25 bays since it isn't designed to hold "fillers"; probably input/output or some other control mechanism. The power supplies have never been removed as there is no oil/fingerprints on the metal at all, it was impeccable. It also seems to take standard rails on the side, but I'd have to compare it with a set that isn't installed.

Everything else seems to have vanished on this server. I'm not sure if it ever went into production, but with the label "TESTSERVER2", I'm assuming either this was a prototype or one of the first made to demonstrate what it is capable of doing. I just fired up the server to see if there was any operating system on the server. It is using the Mandriva operating system (2008.0), which I think was installed by the last person that had this server; I doubt it is the original install since it is from the P3 era.

I have three dual socket P3 systems that are going to be formatted and installed to shortly. The Compaq DL360, Dell PowerEdge 2550 and the Sencore are all going through the paces. "The paces for what?", you might ask. It is time that I finally got down to the "fun" stuff in servers. If you have a keen mind, you may have noticed that they all share the same processor and could figure out what I want to do with them. Otherwise, I will give a hint: Cluster.

The operating system of choice, is, of course, CentOS 5.5. The Compaq is in the progress of installing the operating system as I type this. The other two systems have been hooked up (data/power) for the first time in many months. I've already fired them both up to make sure they are functional and all systems are go. My goal is to have the operating systems installed by tomorrow night, and the configuration time is unknown; since I have no experience in this field.

After this is working, I may tear it down and use it for other nefarious purposes. But for now, they will be my testing grounds and have the magic smoke beaten out of them.

I have three dual socket P3 systems that are going to be formatted and installed to shortly. The Compaq DL360, Dell PowerEdge 2550 and the Sencore are all going through the paces. "The paces for what?", you might ask. It is time that I finally got down to the "fun" stuff in servers. If you have a keen mind, you may have noticed that they all share the same processor and could figure out what I want to do with them. Otherwise, I will give a hint: Cluster.

The operating system of choice, is, of course, CentOS 5.5. The Compaq is in the progress of installing the operating system as I type this. The other two systems have been hooked up (data/power) for the first time in many months. I've already fired them both up to make sure they are functional and all systems are go. My goal is to have the operating systems installed by tomorrow night, and the configuration time is unknown; since I have no experience in this field.

After this is working, I may tear it down and use it for other nefarious purposes. But for now, they will be my testing grounds and have the magic smoke beaten out of them.

Woot! Ive always wanted to see a cluster build from the ground up, cant wait!

Starting to get excited. I got three servers that I will simply explain as "Compaq", "Dell" and "Sencore". Compaq is currently online, updated and configured for a cluster. Dell is currently installing the operating system and needs to go through the full configuration before I can get started. Sencore is still off.

I actually got to the part where I run the cluster, so it seems it is configured properly. I can't actually test it since the cluster has to have "quorum" before it actually starts. With only one node, that isn't possible. This all seems a tad too easy, so I'm sure there is something I'm missing or bound to really screw up.

I love me some Centos, my server runs it. Getting samba without disabling the security features (selinux as an example) was a bit painful but I finally managed. That plus webmin is just slicker than snot on a hot handrail.

Do not break wind in the same room as a dark brother or sister; to do so is to invoke the wrath of Sithis. - Aynjell, in fond memory of Lucien LeChance

Compaq and Dell both are configured and are running in an active cluster. Sencore has just finished installing the operating system. I hit an issue with installing the operating systems and it was a PITA to work around. I somehow misplaced my PS/2 extension cable, so I couldn't move my keyboard at all. You can see my monitor on the left and the edge of the keyboard sitting in the rack. They are a good 12ft apart.

All three are up and running in a cluster. This was substantially easier than I thought it was going to be. The hard part seems to be finding programs that run on a cluster rather than getting a cluster up and running. I've been trying to get Linpack MP (for clusters) to compile, but I'm hitting some snags.

Originally Posted by neonblingbling

So what exactly can you do with a cluster?

Heck, I can barely figure out what to do with my quadcore.

Good question, I'm trying to find something to test out the cluster; but I'm having a very difficult time. So, if anyone knows how to use one, I'd be interested.

No, the programs have to be specially written for clusters. It isn't like a dual/quad core system where you simply add more cores and load them up. The information has to be sent a special way so the other nodes can work on them. I know that they said they were not doing a cluster version until the SMP is working good. So that will be a long way out or "never". I think Linpack will be a good place to start and show that it is working as intended. I just need to get it to compile...